In my generation it was Porky’s. I don’t think the issue is about mechanics. There is a lot of emotional stuff that goes along with sex and most books and movies don’t do a good job of dealing with that in general. Personally I think a large portion of the need for the Me Too movement is due to the fact that we tend to ignore the emotional component of sex and just focus on the biology. I don’t know how much experience you have with teenagers but they are terrible with nuance. Their worlds are very black and white.
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Apparently, Wikipedia is banned on my kid’s kindle…
Do they hate knowledge?!
Well done!!!
Sounds like it’s time to buy another Wikipedia t-shirt!
books
I decided that if I ever move to Suburbia, I’m going to get a “Little lending library”, and it’s going to have 2 sections, one of them poorly locked, painted black, and labeled “dark arts”.
Haven’t decided what would go in there…maybe…
Communist manifesto
Anarchist Cookbook
Sexy poetry
Disturbing poetry
Aynd rand? Saki? Joyce? Burroughs, Etc.
Probably some sketchy graphic novel…
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I do live in suburbia. I should get a little free library and fill it with “liberal” stuff, like
The Hate You Give
This Is How It Always Is
Anything written by John or Hank Green
Harry Potter
…
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This kind of suggests that it makes less sense to ban books, since the alternative is Porky’s.
Or if not for Porky’s you have chat roulette, internet pr0n, and kids telling each other sex rumors?
And if not that, you just have kids trying stuff together at random?
The teen in the Kelly Link story I just read wishes he as a television star, in part because sex is simpler for them.
I’m pretty sure my kid would like Kelly Link, and I keep thinking about sharing it with her. It’s tempting given how she keeps reading the same crap over and over again, but it’s getting hard to vaguely skip over things she doesn’t understand.
Finding something that’s thought provoking without being wholly inappropriate is difficult for TV also.
Would you advocate for Fifty Shades of Grey to be put into your kid’s middle school library? Just because a child could discover or seek out FSoG on their own doesn’t mean we need to make it readily available for them. The problem with books, movies, porn, etc. is that they are all fiction. The hero or heroine doesn’t have to end up being scarred for life. They also don’t need to end up damaged for life either. In many cases fiction represents a romanticized idea of a possible outcome. Because children see the world as very black and white and have a hard time separating fact from fiction, they internalize fiction as the likely result. When it comes to sex and relationships, this gives young adults unrealistic expectations of what they should do in real life.
In the book I mentioned above, the heroine was raped from my perspective because of the consent issues. The book makes it seem like that was an okay and even a good thing. It is not. The reality is that if a young women’s first sexual experience is non-consensual then she is very likely to have issues that stem from that experience. To provide that book to middle schoolers invites them to believe that consent is not needed for a good sexual relationship.
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I have not read it. It sounds like it might just be a bad book though. Maybe we shouldn’t have bad books in a school library?
Does adding bad books to a library make it so people are less likely to read good books?
If someone reads 50 shades, are they more or less likely to read Twilight? And how does it fit against American Pie?
If someone reads a lot of bad books, does it make them a bad person? Or is it just certain bad books? If someone reads good books, does it make them a good person?
Would teenage guys read 50 shades or would it all be teenage girls? Would it really convince a teenage boy that rape is non-harmful?
If the same teenager read two books, one that is 50 shades and another about dealing with PTSD, would the teenager be better or worse than if they had read no books?
Because children see the world as very black and white and have a hard time separating fact from fiction. When it comes to sex and relationships, this gives young adults unrealistic expectations of what they should do in real life.
Would it make sense to have a lot of school library books where the people have good sex then?
And/Or books where characters have bad or unwanted sex and are actually scarred for life?
Maybe not middle school students, but at least high school students? Who may not be fully developed emotionally but are definitely going to have sex anyway?
Sorry I know that’s a lot of ranty questions. I don’t mean to disagree with you. I agree with your basic point:
(1) many women like rape-fantasies, and it makes them happy.
(2) many women get raped, and it makes them deeply unhappy.
(3) many kids (especially young ones) can’t understand the difference between (1) and (2).
The whole conversation reminds me of being a teenager, and trying to decide which masturbation-fantasies were immoral.
Whoa, TMI!
(Teenage Masturbation Immorality!)
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My thought is that if I find a book objectionable for my kid, I take that up with my kid, not with the school library. I’m curious how many (if any) school libraries have 50 Shades of Grey. I would be really surprised to find it in a middle school library in my neck of the woods. Not sure about high school. If I had a kid bring it home I’d be curious about why they wanted to read it and I might read it myself so we could discuss it.
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I think it depends on how objectionable. I’m not thinking that 50 Shades of Gray is appropriate for a Middle School library, or even High School. I think parents would be justified in complaining about that book being in the school library. Some things are just not appropriate for young readers.
You’re trolling me so this is my last engagement.
Most adults read books and have an inherent understanding that fiction is fiction and what they are consuming is escapism. Children read books and it is like a learning manual. They build a worldview from what they are exposed to. If they are exposed to unrealistic expectations, they will incorporate those expectations into their world view which potentially has consequences. Children are not just small adults. They are physically (particularly in regards to the brain) and emotionally different. We can help children thrive by not exposing them to adult experiences until they are adults.
No, I am not trolling you. I was looking for common ground with you when I say that I agree that we probably shouldn’t have 50 Shades in a Middle School library. I am maybe saying more than I should because I’m bored here on the internet, but I mean everything I say.
I am also personally struggling with what books to share with my daughter, because she is precocious, and I desperately want to nurture her talent by not feeding her 100% insipid garbage, and that is hard to do without tripping on inappropriate content. (I know that’s a bit off topic, but it’s what’s on my mind.)
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs
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I mean, yeah, that’s an extreme example for a middle school and I would wonder what the librarian was thinking. When my kid had age-inappropriate books, one came from the public library (that’s what I get for letting my 4th grader peruse the YA section) and the other was in my audible library that I freely shared with my kids. (The book was Wicked, and I just suggested that it wasn’t the same as the musical and she might not enjoy it. I would not have known if she listened to it unless I constantly checked her ipod.)